Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has cancelled the first week of the regular season after negotiations with the Player’s Association broke down Tuesday. After weeks of meetings, the sides were unable to reach an agreement in time to meet MLB’s imposed deadline for starting the season on-time.
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Terry Steinbach was a player’s representative for the union in 1990 while with the Oakland A’s and involved in negotiations that season and also in the strike season of 1994. The 1990 Major League Baseball lockout lasted 32 days, virtually wiping out spring training, moving Opening Day back a week to April 9 and extending the season three days to accommodate the normal 162-game schedule. In 1994, the season was ended early by a player’s strike and was the first time there was no postseason in MLB since 1904.
Steinbach is originally from New Ulm, Minnesota and played professionally with Oakland and the Minnesota Twins. He explained to WCCO’s Vineeta Sawkar how these negotiations between players and owners take place behind closed doors.
“Obviously there there's a lot at stake, and the way we did it in 1990, and I'm not sure it's the same but I'm sure the principles are the same, is you have the owners there and they got numbers and ideas and dates in their head of what they want and how long they're committed to waiting to get that,” Steinbach explains. “Then you have the players, you know, with the same thing. They have ideas in their head, such as what they're asking for a minimum salary, maybe pension increases, stuff like that. And just a matter of trying to figure out what that date is where both sides are willing to make a few concessions and get a new, basic agreement signed and get baseball back on track.”
Steinbach said he sees a lot of the same things in this negotiation he saw back in 1990.
“I think it's pretty similar,” says Steinbach. “You have seen the owners back away from hard deadlines already. If you don't have a deal two days ago it's done. They extended that to midnight and then they kept on talking, so they extended it again. And now they said they canceled the first or opening series. They haven't canceled the whole season, so they could probably make those games up at some point.”
As the lockout continues, Steinbach says it is the fans that will ultimately pay the biggest price.
“I think both sides, owners and players, take the fans for granted,” Steinbach told WCCO. “Ultimately it's the fans right now that are kind of suffering. Think about all the people that made spring training reservations. They're hoping to go watch baseball played, whether it's in Arizona, whether it's in Florida, and they're down there and their whole plans are being disrupted because of this labor dispute.”
The damage done by lockouts and strikes can’t be quantified. Steinbach says if baseball expects fans to just show up again they’re taking a very large risk.
“Both sides always assume that when they do get a settlement and they open the gates, that people are just going to come flocking in, and it's a risk,” warns Steinbach. “It really comes down to how passionate our baseball fans are about the game of baseball, whether they're willing to overlook the disruption that they've had right now, if they're willing to put their foot down and say, you know what, I'm kind of fed up with very, very rich people on both sides arguing it out. I'm just going to take my I dollars and go elsewhere.”
The negotiations between players and owners could resume as early as Thursday, but the player’s union noted in a Tuesday evening statement to the media that MLB said it was their "best and final offer'' when negotiations ultimately broke down.
As of right now, Spring Training games are cancelled through March 11th, and the regular season through the game of April 6th.
In a statement provided to Minnesota Twins radio affiliates on Wednesday, team President Dave St. Peter noted that right now the Twins are hoping for a deal that preserves their home opener on April 7th. WCCO Radio is the flagship radio home of Twins baseball.
“We are disappointed in this news and know that you are too," St. Peter writes. "But, we are confident that MLB continues to negotiate in good faith, is working hard to find areas of compromise, and is exhausting every option to protect the fullest schedule possible and to start the season you and our fans deserve.
“While we unfortunately won’t be able to listen to Minnesota Twins baseball on March 31 from Chicago, I have my sights set on another date in the very near future: Thursday, April 7, when we are set to host the Seattle Mariners at Target Field in a game that is still scheduled and, pending an agreement, will hopefully be our new Opening Day of the 2022 season!”
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